


Mentor Assessment

by mydeira, Sadbhyl



Series: Responsible Adults (aka, The Menageaverse) [44]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-07
Updated: 2012-06-07
Packaged: 2017-11-07 04:40:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/426999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mydeira/pseuds/mydeira, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sadbhyl/pseuds/Sadbhyl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Giles finds out Willow’s looking to someone different these days.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mentor Assessment

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place one week after the events of Sorcerer’s Apprentice and the episode Smashed. 
> 
> Written by Sadbhyl, beta'd by Mydeira

Anya looked up from her order book disinterestedly when Giles returned from lunch. “Did anything happen while I was gone?” he asked, sorting through the mail.

“Financially or apocalyptically?” she asked, dead serious.

He couldn’t help but smile. “I presume I would have noticed an apocalypse. They’re notoriously difficult to hide.”

“Then no.” She looked rather put out at having to answer in the negative. “We need to market ourselves better. Our current advertising just isn’t bringing in enough much needed currency.”

He could read the look in her eye. “You have a suggestion?”

“Actually, I do.” She leaned forward on the counter excitedly. “Willow says there’s a psychic fair at the school next week, with card readers and astrologers and all kinds of new age magic types. I thought maybe we could have a table there, too, selling the things college kids like and getting our name into the campus community. We’re too far from campus for them to just stumble over us, it would be a good way to raise our profile.”

“You seem to have given this a great deal of thought.”

“Well, it’s what I’m good at.”

“It is. So I’ll leave it in your capable hands.”

She didn’t quite jump up and down in excitement. “Thank you! You won’t regret it, I promise. I’ve got some other ideas . . .”

But something she’d said earlier caught his attention. “Did you say Willow told you about this fair?”

Anya nodded. “She brought me the flyer. I thought that maybe we . . .”

“I thought she’d given up the magic since Tara left?” he interrupted her again.

She started to sound impatient. “Well, I guess she’s changed her mind, since she’s back in the training room practicing with Ethan.”

He couldn’t have said if it was rage or fear that struck him deadly silent. Without another word, he turned and headed for the training room door.

“Don’t you want to hear my ideas?” Anya called after him petulantly.

Giles heard them before he reached the open door. “Stop trying so hard,” Ethan’s voice came critically. “This is a passive defense. It doesn’t take a great deal of effort.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Willow grumbled.

“It is. Now do it again.”

Giles paused in the doorway to watch. Willow stood in the middle of the room, the floor around her littered with yellow green tennis balls. Her face was lined in concentration. Ethan sat on a stool at the near end of the room, a small bucket of even more balls sitting at his side and one in his hand. “You aren’t trying to hit it, just block it. Simply solidify your energy between you and the ball, don’t try to strike out at it.”

And with that he bounced the ball at her.

It hit her square in the chest.

Ethan sighed.

“What’s going on in here?” Giles finally asked, interrupting them.

“Giles!” Willow yelped, looking suddenly guilty.

Ethan took the opportunity to bounce another ball at her.

The hollow pop of it hitting the floor startled her and she flinched. But the ball never hit her, veering off in another direction as it struck and invisible force between it and her face.

“Finally,” Ethan sighed in relief.

Willow looked amazed. “I did it! I really did it! Did you see? I really stopped it!”

“I’m so proud. Should we start working with Rupert’s knives?”

She looked properly chastened. “No. I’ll keep practicing with the balls.”

“Yes, you will. Now clean this up. I suspect Rupert wishes to have words with me.”

Giles was surprised when she responded instantly to his curt command, bending without complaint to begin collecting the scattered balls.

The look Ethan gave him was one of resignation. “Shall we take this outside?”

Giles had no choice but to follow him out into the alley.

He took control back almost immediately. “Was she too vulnerable to resist? You just had to get your hooks into her.”

“Nice to know you think so highly of me.”

“You have a history of corrupting young people with magic.”

“So do you.”

He always seemed to forget that with Ethan, control was a tenuous state at best. “Not anymore.”

“Come on now, Ripper, why do you seem so surprised?” He leaned back against a packing crate, crossing his arms over his chest. “I told you what I’d do if you didn’t get her in check. She was totally out of control, so I did the only thing I could do. If you aren’t happy with that, you’ve only yourself to blame.”

“She promised Tara she’d stop,” Giles pointed out adamantly. “Do you want her to violate that trust?”

“Yes, that worked quite well, didn’t it? You know from experience you can’t just quit the magics cold turkey. It won’t let you.” Ethan’s posture softened, and he lowered his eyes briefly. “I’m sorry about Tara, I truly am. I like the girl. But it was the kind of unrealistic promise young people make to keep their lovers happy. There was no way Willow wasn’t going to use it, so she needs to learn how to control it to keep it from controlling her.”

“She shouldn’t be doing it this way.” Giles insisted. “Not with you.”

“Maybe she shouldn’t. But for years you’ve turned a blind eye as she’s dabbled with it, and refused to see her sinking deeper and deeper into it. She needed a teacher and instead she got dire warnings and demands for her skills. With those kinds of mixed messages, it’s no wonder she’s felt alone in this. And unless you plan on stepping up and shouldering your responsibilities, I seem to be the only other choice.”

Giles couldn’t deny Ethan’s words. He thought of all the times he had warned her about the dangers of magic, and all the times they had relied on her to work those same magics. He ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “I never wanted her to have to make the same kind of choices we did.”

“She’s not,” Ethan replied comfortingly. “She’s got ties to the world we never had. Better role models to look up to. Tara, the Slayer, even you. And she’s got a good heart. She’s not the same kind of selfish bastard we were at her age. She wants to do right. She just was getting lost.”

He shouldn’t have been reassured, but he was. All Ethan’s points were valid, for good or ill. He had no choice but to resign himself to the current situation. “Alright, what can I do to help?”

Ethan seemed to sag in his own relief. “Keep me from buggering this up. She picked a white hat patron for herself, one who’s good for the work she wants to do. I’m trying to stay within that framework, but you know Order has never been my strength. Don’t ever challenge me in front of her, but if you see me sliding, call me on it. There may be a reason for it, but I may not even realize I’m doing it.”

That more than anything else Ethan could have said put Giles’ mind at ease. The fact that Ethan was aware of his own weakness spoke volumes of how seriously he was taking this. “Consider it done.”

“We may need some books and materials,” Ethan continued. “And if we can use this space when your Slayer doesn’t need it. I have a place where she can practice the passive things, but for the more active disciplines, I’d rather use someplace slightly more indestructible.”

And suddenly Giles understood what was going on. “Ethan, he said gently, laying a hand on his arm. “This won’t make up for what happened.”

Ethan looked pained. “I know. I watched you try, remember?”

“Then why?”

“You’d rather I was spending my time working my own special brand of magic on this town?”

“That’s an empty threat, and you know it.”

He shrugged. “They seem to be all I have left anymore.”

“No. Now you have a student. And she’s most likely waiting for you

She was, looking worried as she paced when they came back into the training room. As soon as she saw them, she hurried over to Giles. “Don’t be mad at him. I asked him to help me. It wasn’t his fault.”

He looked at Ethan in surprise. Once again, Ethan had chosen the hard way of dealing with an issue. He’d never even implied Willow’s responsibility in this, and from her breathless, artless plea, Giles had no reason to doubt her confession was true.

Ethan didn’t look pleased at having been revealed. “I don’t need you to fight my battles for me, girl. Mind your own business.”

Giles’ hackles rose at the curt rebuke, but Willow instantly bowed her head in embarrassment. “I’m sorry.”

Ethan’s eyes softened, but his voice remained stern. “Back to work. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover before you have time for your school work.”

Giles watched them for a while, tennis balls and critiques bouncing around the room. Then, without saying a word, he turned back to the shop, leaving them to their training.


End file.
